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Friday Fast Facts – Oregon Week
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Leading off …
— “T.I.P.S” … Our weekly preview postings are available for your review and comment. My weekly written preview, along with my predictions for the Buffs’ trip to Autzen can be found here. The CU at the Game Podcast Review/Preview, looking back at the Rocky Mountain Showdown, and previewing the Oregon game, can be found at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or … it can also be found here
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Big Picture
— Revisiting the Rocky Mountain Showdown numbers …
- CU/CSU was watched by 9.3 million viewers. The game was ESPN’s most-watched late-night game on record and fifth-highest of any regular season game on record. For reference: The typical Pac-12 After Dark game gets between one to two million;
- At 2:15 a.m. ET, the game still registered 8.230 million viewers – an audience that was more than 1 million viewers bigger than the peak audience of any other college football game last week;
- Interesting number from Colorado State/Colorado game … You would think that the late night game would have been bolstered viewers from the Pacific Time Zone. As it turns out, only 14% of audience came from Pacific Time Zone (24% for 2022 window avg.)
— Quirky Factoid … 123 11’ West is the longitude of Eugene, Oregon, the furthest west any school can play a Division I-A/FBS game on the mainland;
— It’s Been Awhile … Oregon comes into the game against CU ranked No. 10 in the nation. The Buffs haven’t defeated a Top 10 team since upsetting No. 3 Oklahoma in 2007. The final was 27-24, with a last second field goal – Game Story (with video) can be found here;
— It’s Been Awhile, II … This is kind of crazy, but Saturday will be just the 5th time in the last 18 seasons that Colorado will play in a game where both teams are in the Top 25. The other four times? The last four games of the 2016 season;
— Another record of note … CU is only the fourth team in FBS history to start 3-0 after losing 11 games the previous season;
— Will Bo get his uniform dirty? … Five Power Five teams have kept their quarterbacks clean, with no sacks and no quarterback hits allowed, and Oregon is one of them. If Bo Nix keeps his uniform clean Saturday … it could be a long day for the Buffs;
— The ESPN Power Index … is again pretty pessimistic about CU’s chances at a victory. The Buffs are 20.5-point underdogs to the Ducks, the same spread CU faced in the opener against TCU. The Buffs were given only an 8.2% chance of beating TCU, and are being given only a 6.1% chance of beating Oregon;
— The game will be telecast nationally by the ABC, with Joe Tessitore on the play-by-play, Jesse Palmer on color; with Katie George on the sidelines. 850 KOA radio will have Mark Johnson with the play-by-play, and former CU head coach Gary Barnett as the analyst.
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CU 2023 Season Notables …
— According to College Football Reference’s Simple Rating System, Colorado had their second-worst team ever last year and now they have their fourth-best team ever. CU has played 122 years of football in Boulder. According to the SRS system, only the 1989, 1971, and 1990 teams rank better than what the Buffs have put on the field in 2023;
— CU has scored 35+ points in each of its first three games for the first time since 1995;
— This is the first time since 1998 that Colorado has been among the AP Top 25 in each poll after Weeks 1, 2 and 3;
— The CSU victory represented just the third time in the last 30 seasons that Colorado trailed by 10+ points with less than 10 minutes to play in the 4th quarter and won the game. The other two were Sept. 22, 2012, at Washington State (down 17) and Sept. 24, 1994, at Michigan (down 12);
— Passing plays of 10-plus yards for Colorado the last three seasons (with national rank):
- 2021: 53 (127th)
- 2022: 71 (122nd)
- 2023: 48 (2nd)
— Colorado touchdown passes the last three years: 2021 – 10 touchdown passes in 12 games … 2022: 10 touchdowns in 12 games … 2023: 10 touchdown passes through three games.
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Colorado & Oregon
— Oregon leads the all-time series with Colorado, 15-9, with only one of CU’s victories in the rivalry coming since the Buffs joined the Pac-12 (2016);
— The No. 19 Colorado vs. No. 10 Oregon game will be the 25th meeting between the teams. It’ll be just the third time that both teams are ranked. Last time was for the Fiesta Bowl on January 1, 2002. Other time was the Cotton Bowl on January 1, 1996;
— The two teams share a bit of ESPN historical trivia. The 1979 game between the two teams, played in Boulder, was the first college football game televised by the nascent network. The Ducks won, 33-19, in a game played before 44,274 in Folsom Field;
— The 1984 game in Eugene is most remembered as the game when CU tight end Ed Reinhardt, Jr., went down at the end of the contest, suffering a life-threatening brain injury. Reinhardt was honored before the 2012 game in Eugene, when the Buffs returned for the first time since the ’84 game;
— In 1985, Colorado played Oregon in a game of which Bill McCartney said, “I thing that could be a turning point for our program”. The Buffs, coming off of a 1-10 season in 1984, and six straight losing seasons overall, defeated the Ducks, 21-17. The game came down to the final play, with Oregon facing a fourth-and-goal at the CU three yard line with nine seconds remaining.
You can watch how the final play unfolded below … Look for CU’s all-time leading tackler, Barry Remington (#40), the star of the play, Solomon Wilcotts (#19), and, after the play, a leaping Lance Carl (#2).
— Then there was the game with the unintended consequences. In the 1996 Cotton Bowl, No. 7 Colorado dominated No. 12 Oregon, 38-6 (including a controversial fourth quarter fake punt called by Buff head coach Rick Neuheisel). The unintended consequence? Nike’s Phil Knight attended the game, and, after the big CU victory, he decided he wanted to raise the Ducks to that level of play. Over $1 billion later (yes, that’s billion with a “b”), the once after-thought of a program nationally (not a single 10-win season in the 20th century) became a national brand;
— And … there was the 2016 game in Eugene, when the underdog Buffs took down the Ducks, 41-38, with Ahkello Witherspoon’s interception in the end zone in the final minute preserving the victory.
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Statistically speaking
Stats to make you smile …
- For CU on offense … The Buffs are 23rd in the nation in total offense (479.0 yards/game) … 2nd in the nation in passing offense (418.0 yards/game) … and … tied for 15th in scoring offense (41.3 points/game)
- For CU on defense …The Buffs are tied for 3rd in the nation in interceptions (with 6) … and … tied for 1st in the nation in turnovers gained (with 10)
- For Oregon on offense … Not much to go on here, but the Ducks are 132nd in the nation in penalties on offense … and … 131st in penalty yards against the offense;
- For Oregon on defense … The Ducks are susceptible to the passing game, at least in terms of numbers. Opponents through the first three games are completing 63% of their passes against the Oregon defense (89th in the nation).
Stats to make you cringe …
- For CU on offense … The Buffs are 127th in the nation of rushing offense (61.0 yards/game) … and … are 128th in the nation – in sacks allowed (5.3/game);
- For CU on defense … The Buffs are 122nd in the nation in total defense (460.3 yards/game), are 102nd in the nation in scoring defense (30.3 points/game) … and … 119th in the nation in rushing defense (195.3 yards/game)
- For Oregon on offense … The Ducks are fourth in the nation in total offense (579.7 yards/game) … and … second in the nation in scoring offense (58.0 points/game);
- For Oregon on defense … The Ducks are 29th in third down defense (.317) … 15th in the nation in pass defense (158.7 yards/game) … and … 31st in scoring defense (15.67 points/game).
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Colorado and Oregon – historical
When the Oregon sports information office cites statistics, they often preface it with “1997-present” for its posting of records … and with good reason. Why? Because for most of the century of football played before 1997, the Ducks were not that good. As a result, in six of the 12 historical categories tracked by Winsipedia, Colorado leads Oregon, with one tie (Heisman trophy winners: 1 each). Some numbers:
— Colorado is 29th in all-time wins (722); Oregon is 34th (695);
— Colorado is 12th in conference championships (26); Oregon is 49th (13);
— Colorado is 24th in consensus All-Americans (31); Oregon is 56th (10);
— Colorado is 27th in all-time NFL draft picks (276); Oregon is 36th (236).
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Player Notes …
— Shedeur Sanders became the first quarterback in CU history to pass for over 300 yards in each of his first three games. Steven Montez (2018) and Connor Wood (2013) had previously been the only two quarterbacks in Colorado history to open a season with back-to-back 300-plus yard passing games. (Montez and Wood both failed to reach the 300-yard mark in game three);
— Since beginning high school in 2017, Shedeur Sanders has a win-loss record of 74-8, and has thrown for nearly 21,000 yards and 240 touchdowns;
— This is Colorado’s Sean Lewis’ 9th season as either an offensive coordinator or as a head coach. Michael Harrison’s 113 receiving yards through three games are already the 2nd-most in a single season for a tight end in a Lewis offense and Harrison’s 11 catches rank as third-most;
— Center Hank Zalinskas started for the injured Van Wells at center against CSU, becoming just the second player in school history to start at center as a true freshman, and just the 14th true freshman to start anywhere along the offensive line. Wells was the first to start at center as a true freshman;
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Pac-12 Notes
— Eight teams from the Pac-12 are ranked in the latest Associated Press poll:
- No. 5 … USC
- No. 8 … Washington
- No. 10 … Oregon
- No. 11 … Utah
- No. 14 … Oregon State
- No. 19 … Colorado
- No. 21 … Washington State
- No. 22 … UCLA
— The Pac-12 had never had more than six teams in the poll at one time prior to the past two weeks. Only the Southeastern Conference previously has offered up as many as eight teams ranked, doing so multiple times, and even had 10 teams in the AP poll all at once in 2015;
— The Pac-12 is 28-6 in non-conference play, the best in the nation. The only two non-conference games left for the Pac-12 involve Notre Dame, with USC and Stanford still having dates with the Irish;
From DraftKings.com …
Saturday, September 23rd
Pac-12 Lines: Conference play
Lines from DraftKings …
- No. 19 Colorado at No. 10 Oregon … 1:30 p.m., MT, ABC … Oregon is a 20.5-point favorite
- No. 22 UCLA at No. 11 Utah … 1:30 p.m., MT, Fox … Utah is a 5.0-point favorite
- Arizona at Stanford … 5:00 p.m., MT, Pac-12 Networks … Arizona is a 10.0-point road favorite
- No. 14 Oregon State at No. 21 Washington State … 5:00 p.m., MT, Fox … Oregon State is a 2.0-point road favorite
- Cal at No. 8 Washington … 8:30 p.m., MT, ESPN … Washington is a 21.0-point favorite
- No. 5 USC at Arizona State … 8:30 p.m., MT, Fox … USC is a 34.0-point road favorite
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3 Replies to “Friday Fast Facts”
The two lines below look fishy. Either UW is not favored by enough or UO by too much. Cal vs Buffs would be Buffs -10.
No. 19 Colorado at No. 10 Oregon … 1:30 p.m., MT, ABC … Oregon is a 20.5-point favorite
Cal at No. 8 Washington … 8:30 p.m., MT, ESPN … Washington is a 21.0-point favorite
Below is an email I sent my friend, he’s fond of the ducks because he saw them beat USC and he hates USC fans:
“Then there was the game with the unintended consequences. In the 1996 Cotton Bowl, No. 7 Colorado dominated No. 12 Oregon, 38-6 (including a controversial fourth quarter fake punt called by Buff head coach Rick Neuheisel). The unintended consequence? Nike’s Phil Knight attended the game, and, after the big CU victory, he decided he wanted to raise the Ducks to that level of play. Over $1 billion later (yes, that’s billion with a “b”), the once after-thought of a program nationally (not a single 10-win season in the 20th century) became a national brand.”
Before 1996 the Ducks NEVER had a 10 win season. Never! They were middle of their conference at best.
But over a billion dollars later, what could you do with a million dollars? A rich man bought his team top coaches, facilities and recruits. Facilities, cool new uniforms, expensive Nike shoes and other perks (the players get to keep jerseys and shoes) along with pay for play, which was illegal but there were ways to do it, and he bought them a bunch of 10 win seasons.
That’s why I’m not a fan of theirs. I root for them when they play against another conferences, but as of next year they are in another conference and I will have no reason to root for them. They will be in a better conference next year too, thanks to the Buffs, AGAIN! BUT, that’s another story.
Also this year, the ducks played two very weak teams in non-conference play (first 3 games) and one middle of the road team, so their current stats are big because their opponents were small. Portland State was one team where the ducks raked up 81 points and 729 yards. Meanwhile CU played three very tough games to start the season, the toughest schedule in the nation; they played their two toughest rivalries while Oregon feasted on poor Portland State & Hawaii who are horrible this year.
Most duck fans are younger and became fans during the winning years after 1996, jumped on after the ducks were already winners, and they are arrogant on line and act like they’ve been a power program all along. But, it took a rich billionaire to get them were they are… and they still haven’t won a national championship with all that money and cheating (recruiting cheats) and yet no NCs.
The older fans are more humble and less rowdy on line, but they a few, if you’re under 40, you really would only remember the ducks as winners, so they are more arrogant on line. The duck’s fan base before 1990ish were only alum and family, now they are the football program of the whole state, a state that doesn’t have an NFL team. So the ducks are their “pro” team.
This is why I told my friend to drop the ducks as one of his teams.
“CU/CSU was watched by 9.3 million viewers. The game was ESPN’s most-watched late-night game on record and fifth-highest of any regular season game on record…At 2:15 a.m. ET, the game still registered 8.230 million viewers.”
The 1 million lost viewers at the end were probably people that didn’t have their DVR set long enough for the late start and a 4 plus hour long game. I couldn’t watch the game’s start and couldn’t watch the game until about 30 some minutes late, so I DVR’d the game; I always DVR the games anyway.
We had the DVR set for an extra hour and while we were watching the game in real time by the end, we caught up during the commercials, when the recording ran out of time the screen froze, right when the Buffs were near the end zone. I had to scramble fast to get the live game on before the next play, it was exciting to say the least… not!
So, that drop off is probably people who fell asleep thinking their DVR had the game, some probably fell asleep right in front of their TV, but their DVR ran out so the ratings dropped off.
My DVR is set for an extra two hours now.